Linguistics Lab

William C. Friday Linguistics Lab

Lab Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 9am - 4pm
Friday: 9am - 3pm

Phone:919/515-3128

Located in Room 204 of Tompkins Hall, the William C. Friday Linguistics Lab is home to the North Carolina Language and Life Project's interview collection, an archive that is being digitized and preserved through the North Carolina Sociolinguistic Archive and Analysis Project. Resources available through the Linguistics Lab allow involvement in all phases of linguistic research from data collection to analysis. Faculty and students access the necessary equipment according to their specific field research needs, including digital recorders, microphones, and video equipment, and are then able to listen to and to further explore the data through analysis programs available on any of the seven computer work stations (6 Windows PCs and 1 Macintosh) in the Lab. The lab houses a Tascam CC-222 audio cassette and CD recorder which allows for direct digitization of cassette tapes to CD. Additionally, multi-media consoles with tape deck, VCR, DVD, and TV allow for an opportunity to listen to and view a large repository of audio and video tapes on language and language variation.

The overall repository of dialect tapes in the NCSU Linguistics Lab is the largest sociolinguistic collection of this type in the South and one of the most diverse collections of dialect recordings in the United States. The majority of the interviews have been conducted with North Carolinians through the support of the NCLLP beginning in the early 1990s, however the archive also includes speaker data from research in diverse regions such as Michigan, New York, Washington D.C., the Bahamas, and elsewhere. The Lab's audio holdings also includes all the interviews conducted for the compilation of the Dictionary of American Regional English (1965-1970) for the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, as well as the collection of Dialect Recordings of the United States compiled by the Center for Applied Linguistics. The resources available are useful to students and faculty at all levels of linguistic expertise as well as people in many different fields of study and work. Visitors are welcome during Lab hours (9am-4pm Monday through Friday), and our staff can assist you in getting started with the available equipment.

Questions? Contact the Lab during business hours at 919/515-3128 for more information.